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Caterham Superlight R500 returns for Top Gear Live

The legendary pearl white and orange Caterham Superlight R500, driven to within a fraction of the Top Gear Power Lap record by The Stig, has been brought out of retirement to appear at Top Gear Live 2011.

Three years after its head-turning appearance on Top Gear, the iconic machine will be piloted by The Stig on a purpose-built, indoor race track for the brand new Power Laps feature of the live show.

The featherweight British sportscar, with its 500bhp-per-tonne performance, spent two years on the famous sportscar maker’s press fleet but was ‘retired’ at the end of 2010, having been widely acknowledged as a superlative track and road machine.

The Caterham R500 will be performing on track at Birmingham’s NEC on 11-13 November and London’s ExCeL between 24-27 November.

Still Caterham’s quickest current full production model, the R500 flew around Top Gear’s Dunsfold circuit in a blistering time of 1:17.9 seconds, placing it just shy of the lead but ahead of vehicles costing 10 times more.

Its performance earned it the proud title of Top Gear TV’s Car of the Year for 2008.

Caterham Cars’ Andy Noble commented: “We always said that we’d need a damn good reason to bring the Top Gear R500 out of retirement, so when we got the call, we couldn’t resist the temptation to unleash it on the public once more on this unique indoor track.”

Visit caterham.co.uk for more information. To buy tickets for Top Gear Live, visit topgearlive.co.uk.